Tantra Tips: The importance of a relaxed body and mind in Tantra…

When the body and mind are tense, awareness is diminished. Your external senses are less perceptive, and you are less able to turn
inwards (pratyahara). Tantra seeks to expand (“tanotti“) both sensory and internal awareness to achieve liberation (“trayotti“).

Try an experiment.
Shake your right arm out – loosen up the muscles. Then take your left index finger and move it gently across the hairs of your relaxed arm, from writ to shoulder. First do it fast, then do it exquisitely slowly. Close your eyes and repeat it.

Now try the experiment again, this time keeping the muscles of your right arm flexed hard – tense. Try it again with your eyes closed. Notice the difference between your sensation and awareness during tension, and your sensation and awareness during relaxation.

The same thing happens when you try to make love (external senses) or meditate (internal senses) while tense vs. relaxed…

This is why in right hand path tantra (the solo meditative tradition) and left hand path tantra (the tradition that can include the use of sacred sexuality), practitioners are taught how to relax themselves or each other through techniques like marma adi, sarangi, kum nye, hatha yoga, and more. More on those techniques later.

For now, just try to relax before meditating, making love, or even masturbating! You’ll be more fully present during the experience, more aware! Once you have relaxation and awareness, try to follow the gross sensations back to their subtlest aspect. Get and give massages, exercise regularly, do hatha yoga or physical qigong. It’s much harder to achieve self-realization when your muscles are always preventing your mind from becoming tranquil!